Meet Dejchart, English speaking taxi motorcyclist

[Thaivisa News]

Bangkok:- A motorcycle-taxi driver in Bangkok has become famous in recent years not for anything related to his rides – but for his English fluency.

Dejchart Puangket, 43, looks like any other men at motorcycle-taxi stands until he starts speaking the foreign language. And he is self taught.

“I didn’t have the privilege of proper schooling,” he told ASTV Manager, “But that doesn’t prevent me from trying to learn to speak English”.

Hailed from the northeastern province of Si Sa Ket, Dejchart came to Bangkok to look for work. He said once in the capital, he often ran into foreigners looking for help with direction.

“I wanted to help but I could not. So, I told myself that I must do something to be able to communicate with them. I wouldn’t just say No No No anymore,” he said.

Dejchart was a factory worker at the time he bought his first dictionary.

“I carried the dictionary with me and read it whenever I had free time,” he said.

His friends and colleagues initially taunted him, asking if why he would want to speak English given that he could not even speak standard Thai language clearly.

“But I refused to give up,” Dejchart said. He said after some five or six years of self-taught practice, he mustered the courage to speak to foreigners.

“From then, I can learn a lot more from practice with native speakers,” Dejchart said, “For example, it know the rain can be called a shower. And a native speaker will tell me that it can be referred to as a drizzle too”.

[Somtamnication]

Kudos to him. Nice to read something positive about Thailand.

[DavisH]

This is very inspirational and great to hear. I hope he can use his english skills to improve his lot in life.

[apetley]

My hairdresser in the village has entirely self taught English language. She is 42 and learnt by watching Hollywood action movie dvd's bought in the local market!

She is a big fan of Bruce Willis so I'm grateful she doesn't finish every sentence with 'yippee kai yay'.

Edited May 6, 2015 by apetley

[Always18]

As laudable as this guys efforts truly are, the really sad part is that it is a news story!

It seems that Thais in general are either unaware or quite uncaring that the default language of ASEAN and the AEC is ENGLISH......................

[fareastguy]

Now he's fluent in "that'll be...

100 baht thx

200 baht thx

300 baht thx

400 baht thx

etc etc

[ronwparker]

A great story-I admire his guts and determination

[Oziex1]

Great story, wish there were more like him.

[HerbalEd]

Now he's fluent in "that'll be...

100 baht thx

200 baht thx

300 baht thx

400 baht thx

etc etc

And thank you for pissing on what is actually a nice story.

[jackanapes]

I think this chap will go far many opportunities are around the corner if he understands the English language he could be an interpreter the pm wants the police to learn English this chap could do the business teaching,

[Eddy B]

Well done to this man for doing something to improve his knowledge. Kind of sad but not unheard of, that his fellow workers tried to pull him down and make him feel small. Even them saying that his Thai ability was not good is a slap in the face to him. If I am ever in BKK which I hope is not often I would like to use his services and even sit down for a while and have a chat with him. A friend of my wife has a young daughter and when she comes to visit us we often have a little chat. I can even ask her science questions that she learns in school and she can answer me in English. This girl loves the English language and it has come to the point that she would rather use English all the time rather than Thai. This girl is lucky as they have allowed her to have access to any media she wants using only English. Tv, movies, books, pretty much anything and she is only 8 yrs old.From my personal experience as working as a teacher before, she can outdo most high school students with her vocab and hold a solid conversation.

[DogNo1]

For some people, it's easy to learn a foreign language; for some it's not. For the life of me, I just can't do math. I have friends who conceptualize math with ease. I learn languages pretty easily though.

[Benmart]

Now he's fluent in "that'll be...

100 baht thx

200 baht thx

300 baht thx

400 baht thx

etc etc

I don't know him and his rates.

For every positive story there are plenty that sow the seeds of negativism into it.